Reading the Lightning Thief
by thaliagrace160
Summary: Percy, Thalia, and Nico are sent back to 1998 to read the PJO books with the gods and demigods from 2005. Please review!


**I don't own Percy Jackson or Heroes of Olympus. All rights belong to Rick Riordan. **

**This happens after The Heroes of Olympus books.**

**There is some Percabeth in the later chapters.**

**The past demigods will be underlined. The future demigods will not be underlined. Percy from 1998 will also be underlined.**

"Mother Rhea always liked you best!"

"I am simply stunning!"

"Shut up, and don't call me sis!"

"My master bolt _easily_ tops your trident!"

"You people need to eat more cereal!"

"Everyone just be quiet!" Everyone turned and looked at Hestia with surprise. They had never heard her use such a loud tone before.

Suddenly, they heard screaming coming from above them. All the gods looked up and saw five kids falling. They landed in a heap on the floor. They stood up. Three of the kids looked about 16 or 17. The other two kids looked like he was around 12 or 13.

"Hey, where are we?" A boy with messy black hair asked. "I don't know where we're at, Percy. Why don't you ask Nico?" A girl with short black hair said.

"Nico, what did you do now?" The boy with messy black hair looked at a boy with really pale skin. "I didn't do anything!" He threw his hands up dramatically. A girl with curly, caramel colored hair started to laugh while a boy with blonde hair stood by and watched.

"WHO ARE YOU, AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" Someone yelled. The demigods all turned around to look at fourteen gods looking at them. The demigods were standing in Olympus in the middle of the throne room.

"Um, Father, don't you remember us?" The girl with short black hair asked. "No, now who are you?" He said. The said girl and the boy with messy black hair looked at each other worried. "You mean you **didn't** call us here?" The said boy asked.

Poseidon looked at the boy with messy black hair. He looked familiar. _He looks like Percy. That can't be though, because Percy is only 5 years old._

"No. Now who are you?" "Lord Zeus, what year is it?" The boy with pale skin asked. "It is June 21st, 1998." "Percy, we traveled back in time." He whispered to the boy next to him. Then, a bunch of little demigods fell on the floor in a big pile. They looked about 11 or 12. They stood up and looked around.

Suddenly, a box dropped on one of the boys' head. "OW! What the Hades!" Hades scowled at that comment. "Please don't use my name like that, young demigod." The boy nodded.

He looked down and saw a bunch of books and a note. The note said, _Dear Gods and future demigods, I have sent you back in time to read about Percy Jackson's adventures. The demigods will introduce themselves and say who their parents are. Zeus, you are not allowed to kill or harm them in any way, Love, your favorite gods ever, future Apollo and Hermes. PS, we also sent the young demigods versions of all of you, except for Percy, from 2005 to listen to listen. And Percy will feel all feelings that the book Percy feels. _

One of them stepped forward. "Well, I'm Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon and Hero of Olympus." Zeus looked at Poseidon angrily. "Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus and First Lieutenant to Artemis." Zeus looked shocked. Artemis looked equally shocked.

"What happened to Zoe?" Artemis asked.

"Nico Di Angelo, son of Hades and Hero of Olympus." Zeus looked at Hades and got off his throne.

"POSEIDON! HADES! YOU BROKE THE OATH!" Zeus thundered. Lightning flashed next to him and thunder rumbled through out the throne room.

"You did too, Zeus!" Poseidon yelled. He stood up and a whirlpool started next to him. "So don't try that 'I'm innocent and my brothers get the blame' shit with me!"

Hades stood up with black fire coming out of his hands and off his clothes. "I didn't break the freaking oath! Nico and Bianca were born before it!"

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning hit Zeus and knocked him down, a giant wave hit Poseidon right in the face, and Hades got hit in the face with a black, flaming bone.

"STOP IT!" Thalia, Nico and Percy screamed. "POSEIDON! HADES! YOU BROKE THE OATH!" Thalia yelled at Percy.

"You did too, Zeus! So don't try that 'I'm innocent and my brothers get the blame' shit with me!" Percy shrieked at Thalia.

"I didn't break the freaking oath! Nico and Bianca were born before it!" Nico screamed at both of them.

"Does it really matter if any of you broke the oath?" Percy yelled. After they stopped yelling at their dads, Thalia was glowing and sparks were flying off her hands, Percy was right next to a giant whirlpool and Nico had somehow lit himself on fire, and the fire was black.

"Now you know how FUCKING STUPID YOU ALL LOOK!" Percy and Thalia yelled.

The gods mumbled something and sat back down. The whirlpool disappeared, Thalia stopped glowing, and the black fire around Nico vanished.

The other two kids looked uncomfortable. Percy whispered something to the girl, and she stepped forward.

"Hazel Levesque, One of the Seven and daughter of Pluto." The blonde boy stepped up.

"Jason Grace, One of the Seven and son of Jupiter." The gods were very confused.

"Why are there Romans with Greeks?" Athena asked. The demigods looked at each other. Percy said, "It's a long story. The books will eventually explain everything, Lady Athena."

Zeus looked at the younger demigods. "Now, who are all of you?"

They stepped up and introduced themselves one by one.

"Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena."

"Travis Stoll, son of Hermes."

"Connor Stoll, son of Hermes."

"Clarisse La Rue, daughter of Ares."

"Katie Gardener, daughter of Demeter."

"Silena Beauregard, daughter of Aphrodite." Thalia, Percy, and Nico winced.

"Charles Beckendorf, son of Hephaestus." Thalia, Percy, and Nico winced again. Athena wondered what was wrong.

"What are the names of the books?" Thalia asked. "Um..." Nico picked up one of the books. "Percy Jackson and Olympians: The Lightning Thief, Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters, Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse, Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth, and Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian. I think we should go ahead and start reading." Nico said. "Fine, who wants to read first?" Percy asked. "I will!" Nico said.

**"I ****Accidentally** **Vaporize My Algebra Teacher" **Nico read.

**"I Accidentally Vaporize My Algebra Teacher," **Nico read.

"Wait a minute, how do you accidentally vaporize someone?" Athena asked. Nico shrugged.

"With Percy, you never really know." He said.

**Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.**

"No demigod does, child." Athena said sadly.

**If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is:**

"Percy giving advice, that's unthinkable!" Thalia and Nico screamed.

"Why?" asked Annabeth.

Thalia said, "If Percy's got an idea or giving out advice, MY advice is to run and hide." She looked at Percy and smiled.

**Close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom and dad told your birth and try to lead a normal life.**

"That's not going to work." Athena said sadly.

**Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.**

"Yeah, you would definitely come close to getting killed painfully if you were Percy." Nico said.

**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened. **

**But if you recognize yourself in these pages-if you feel something stirring inside-stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before _they_ sense it too, and they'll come for you.**

**Don't say I didn't warn you.**

"But you didn't warn me!" Nico yelled.

**My name is Percy Jackson.**

**I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

**Am I a troubled kid?**

"YES!" Thalia and Nico yelled.

"Thanks guys." Percy said.

**Yeah. You could say that.**

"See, you even admit to being troubled." Apollo said.

**I could start at any point in my short, miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan-twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.**

**I know-it sounds like torture.**

Annabeth and Athena looked shocked at that statement.

**Most Yancy field trips were.**

**But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.**

**Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

"WHAT! You sleep in class?!" Athena shrieked. Percy just shrugged.

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped for once I wouldn't get in trouble.**

**Boy, was I wrong.**

**See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway.**

"Percy, what... were you aiming... at?" Travis and Connor said between laughs.

"I honestly don't know, even now. I guess I just wanted to see what would happen, and it happened to be pointing toward the bus." Percy said which caused the Stoll's to laugh even harder.

**And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. And the time before that... Well, you get the idea.**

**This trip, I was determined to be good.**

"Like THAT could happen." Nico said. Percy glared at him.

**All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.**

**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when got frustrated.**

**He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth-grader with acne and the start of a wimpy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled.**

**He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly, brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation.**

"Don't let that stop you!" Ares yelled. Aphrodite glared at him, and he instantly shut up.

**The headmaster had threatened me with death-**

"WHAT?" Poseidon yelled.

**By in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.**

"Oh." Poseidon said, embarrassed.

**"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."**

**He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.**

**"That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled back to my seat.**

**"You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."**

**Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. In school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.**

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.**

**He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.**

**It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.**

Artemis looked at Percy. "It survived longer than that." She said.

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot tall stone column with big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a _stele_, for a girl about our age.**

"Hold on, weren't sphinx in Ancient Egypt?" Nico asked confused.

"Well, they were many places; they were just used the most in Ancient Egypt." Annabeth told him. He nodded like he understood.

**He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting,**

"Percy actually thought something from Ancient Greece was INTERESTING?" Thalia and Nico yelled at the same time. Percy glared at them and they started laughing.

"Hey, Nico, come over here buddy. I got something to show you." Percy said. Nico cautiously walked over to him and Percy threw his arm around Nico's neck. Nico started trying to get Percy's arm off his neck, but after a few minutes of unsuccessfully trying to escape Percy's hold, he just gave up. "Say one more witty comment and you're going off Olympus the hard way. Got that Nico?" Nico nodded. Percy let him go.

**But everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.**

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.**

"She's definitely a monster." Travis said. Travis had been so quiet; everyone had completely forgotten that he was even there.

**From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn.**

"No, that's Nico!" Thalia said and started to laugh when Nico glared at her.

**She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."**

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.**

**Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy about the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you _shut up_?"**

**It came out louder than I meant it to.**

"I don't think I've ever heard you whisper, Seaweed Brain." Thalia told Percy. He just laughed.

**The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

**"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"**

"She is so busted!" Travis and Connor yelled at the same time.

**My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele.**

**"Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"**

**I looked at the carving, and felt a rush of relief, because I actually recognized. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

"It HAD to be THAT one didn't it?" Hera and Demeter said at the same time.

**"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because…"**

**"Well…" I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and-"**

"GOD?" Zeus thundered. "Brother, I'm sure that Chiron will correct him." Hades said.

**"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.**

"See, he corrected the boy." Hades told Zeus.

**"Titan," I corrected myself. "And… he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead."**

"You have to be pretty stupid to mistake a rock for a kid." Connor said.

"Well, Zeus DID have a distinct likeness to a rock as a child." Hera said. "No, I did not! Now stop telling people that I looked like a rock!" Zeus complained.

**"And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters-"**

**"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.**

"Try BEING there." Hestia said.

**"-and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."**

**Some snickers from the group.**

**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**

**"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"**

"Busted." Nico said.

**"Busted," Grover muttered.**

"I think like a satyr! No!" Nico screamed. He dropped the book, and threw himself to the floor dramatically. Everyone started laughing. He got back up and started reading again.

**"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.**

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

**I thought about his question and ****shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

"Well, he'd better learn the answer… ungrateful demigod." Hera said.

"Hello, I'm right here!" Percy yelled. Everyone else was trying to hold back laughter.

**"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy not, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

Hera, Demeter, and Hestia looked like they were going to be sick.

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.**

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."**

**I knew that was coming.**

**I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go-intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.**

**"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**

**"About the Titans?"**

**"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

**"Oh."**

**"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you Percy Jackson."**

"Typical Chiron, he only expects the best out of people." Nico muttered.

**I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.**

**I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament day, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the boar and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped.**

"Even **I** couldn't do that." Zeus said. Poseidon, Hades, and Hestia nodded in agreement.

**"But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C- in my life. No-he didn't expect me to be _as_ _good_; he expected me to be _better_. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.**

"He probably was." Thalia said.

**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue. **

**Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York State had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, and wildfires from lighting strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.**

**Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.**

**Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from _that_ school-the school for loser freaks who couldn't make elsewhere.**

"Percy, you are NOT a loser freak." Thalia said. Percy smiled. "Thanks Thals."

**"Detention?" Grover asked.**

**"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean-I'm not a genius."**

"You got that right." Annabeth said.

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

**I didn't much of an appetite, so I let him take it.**

**I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home.**

Aphrodite, Demeter, and Hera all cooed at that statement. "You must really love your mother." Hera said.

**She'd hug me and be glad to be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me. **

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramps. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair,**

"Hey, kind of like a motorized café table." Thalia said.

**Making it look like a motorized café table.**

"I think like a Seaweed Brain!" Thalia yelled dramatically.

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends-I guess she's gotten tired of stealing from the tourists-and dumped her half-eaten lunch on Grover's lap.**

**"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

"I will NEVER think about Cheetos the same way EVER AGAIN." Apollo said. "I won't either, Apollo." Hermes agreed.

**I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see-"**

**"-the water-"**

**"-like it grabbed her-"**

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.**

**As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester.**

"You pretty much just did kelp for brains." Thalia and Annabeth said at the same time.

**"Now, honey-"**

**"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

"Percy, you broke rule 13!" Hermes complained.

"What's rule 13, Lord Hermes?" Percy asked.

"Never guess your punishment!" Hermes wailed.

"I'm sorry, Lord Hermes. Wait, you have a list of rules?" Percy said. Travis and Connor nodded.

"Dad has a whole book actually." Connor said.

**That wasn't the right thing to say.**

**"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

**"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. _I_ pushed her."**

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to over for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.**

**She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

**"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood."**

"Well, at least he tried to help you, Perce." Nico said.

**"But-"**

**"You-_will_-stay-here."**

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

**"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

**"Honey," Mrs. Dodds baked at me. _"Now."_**

**Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.**

"I bet it's not as good as mine." Ares said.

"You want to make that a bet, Ares?" Percy said. Ares nodded and glared at him. Percy glared right back at him, and Ares started to whimper a little.

"Okay punk, you win." He said once Percy stopped staring at him. Percy smirked in victory.

**Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.**

**How'd she get there so fast?**

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and next thing I know I've something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank piece behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

"It's not the ADHD, son." Poseidon said quietly.

**I wasn't so sure.**

**I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building at the end of the entrance hall.**

**Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.**

**But apparently that wasn't the plan.**

**I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back into the Greek and Roman section.**

**Except for us, the gallery was empty.**

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.**

"That is a definite sign that she's a monster." Thalia said.

**Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it…**

"She probably DID want to pulverize it." Hades and Nico said at the same time.

**"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

**I did the safe thing, I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

"Well, at least we know that Percy can use manners." Nico, Thalia, and Annabeth said at the same time.

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think that you would get away with it?"**

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.**

**She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

**I said, "I'll-I'll try harder, ma'am."**

**Thunder shook the building.**

**"We are not fools, Percy Jackson." Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

"So, how much pain was he going to be in if he didn't confess, and what in Hades is she talking about?" Travis asked. Hades glared at him. "I'm sorry, Lord Hades." Travis said quietly.

**I didn't know what she was talking about.**

"Oh no! I think like Percy!" Travis screamed dramatically and grinned at Percy.

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room.**

At the mention of candy; Apollo, Hermes, and the Stoll's started to drool.

Artemis chucked a few candy bars at their faces and they stopped drooling.

**Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on _Tom Sawyer_ from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make read the book.**

"The book is actually not that bad." Annabeth said.

**"Well?" she demanded.**

**"Ma'am, I don't…"**

**"Your time is up," she hissed.**

**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her finger stretched into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.**

"HADES! YOU SENT A FURY AFTER MY SON!" Poseidon yelled. "You sent a fury after my son." He said quieter. Percy walked over to him and put a hand on Poseidon's shoulder.

"Dad, it's okay. I'm right here and I'm fine." He told Poseidon. Poseidon nodded. Nico continued to read.

"Percy, how could you not tell that your first monster was a fury?" Thalia asked with a murderous look on her face. He slowly backed up from Thalia. Nico, Jason, Hazel and Annabeth understood why he was backing away from her. She had blue sparks flying from her hands.

A bolt of lightning hit the ground next to Percy and he yelped. Everyone but Thalia looked at Zeus. He was confused.

"I didn't do it!" He said. Everyone looked back at Thalia. She was standing perfectly still, but she was still glaring at Percy. Finally she sat back down next to Nico, and Percy sat next to Annabeth. Nico continued reading.

**Then things got even stranger.**

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

**"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

"What ho?" Travis asked.

**Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword-Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.**

**My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

"Wimp." Ares and Clarisse both said. Poseidon drenched Ares with cold water while Percy drenched Clarisse with cold water.

**She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

**And she flew straight at me.**

**Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.**

**The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. _Hisss!_**

**Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

**I was alone.**

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

**Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.**

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

"Really Prissy? You thought your lunch was contaminated with magic mushrooms?" Clarisse asked.

**Had I imagined the whole thing?**

**I went back outside.**

**It had started to rain.**

**Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

"Who?" Poseidon asked.

**I said, "Who?"**

**Poseidon smiled.**

**"Our _teacher_. Duh!"**

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.**

**She just rolled her eyes and turned away. I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

**He said, "Who?"**

**But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

**"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."**

"Someone is going to have to teach that satyr how to lie." Hermes said.

"Hermes, you are NOT going to teach any of my satyrs how to lie." Dionysus said.

**Thunder boomed overhead.**

**I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.**

**I went over to him.**

**He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

**"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

**He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

**"The other chaperone, Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

"Now, Chiron can lie!" Hermes said happily. Artemis shook her head. _Boys are so immature._ She thought.

"That's the end of the chapter. Who wants to read next?" Nico asked. "I will." Demeter said.

**"Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death" **Demeter read.

**"Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death." **Demeter read.

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle.**

"A lot of things are more than you can handle." Thalia said and grinned. Percy glared at her.

**For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr-a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip-had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.**

**Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.**

"That's because you are Seaweed Brain." Nico said. "Just how many times has my pyschoness saved your asses?" Percy said.

**It got so I almost believed them-Mrs. Dodds had never existed.**

**Almost.**

**But Grover couldn't fool me. When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.**

"Connor, remind me when we back to camp that we need to teach Grover how to lie." Travis said.

"You are NOT corrupting my satyrs!" Dionysus yelled.

**Something was going on. Something _had_ happened at the museum.**

**I didn't have much time to think about during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.**

"You're a wimp, Jackson." Ares sneered. Percy and Poseidon both doused him in ice-cold water.

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic.**

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to F's. I got into more fights with fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn't sure what it meant, but it sounded good.**

"An old sot is-" Annabeth started to say, but was cut off by Percy.

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

**I was homesick.**

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side**

Aphrodite, Demeter and Hera cooed.

**Even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.**

Percy scowled when Gabe was mentioned. Thalia and Nico wondered what was wrong. They knew that Percy hated his old stepdad, but they wondered what made him scowl like that.

**And yet… there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was little strange. I worried how he'd survive next year without me.**

**I'd miss Latin class, too-Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.**

**As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for. I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.**

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the _Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology_ across my dorm room.**

"You threw a book?" Athena and Annabeth shrieked. They looked at Percy like they wanted to murder him.

**Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon, or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

**I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.**

**I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. _I will only accept the best from you, Percy Jackson._**

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.**

**I'd never asked a teacher for help before. Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.**

**I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said "…worried about Percy, sir."**

**I froze.**

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper,**

"Whatever, Percy. You eavesdrop on me and Annabeth every time I come to camp." Thalia said.

Percy grinned. "Hey, it's not my fault you guys go to the beach every time you come to camp, Thals. It's also not my fault that my cabin just so happens to be right next to the beach."

**But I dare you to try not listening if you hear you best friend talking about you to an adult.**

**I inched closer.**

**"…alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the _school_! Now that we know for sure, and _they_ know too-"**

**"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."**

**"But he may not have time. The summer solstice deadline-"**

**"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."**

"It looks like Percy's _still_ enjoying his ignorance." Nico said.

**"Sir, he _saw_ her…"**

**"His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."**

**"Sir, I… I can't fail in my duties again," Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."**

**"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall-"**

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and fell on the floor with a thud.**

"You never give away your position, Percy!" Hermes wailed.

"I'm sorry, Lord Hermes." Percy said.

**Mr. Brunner went silent.**

**My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.**

**A few seconds later I heard a slow, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, and then moved on.**

**A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.**

**Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."**

**"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn…"**

**"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."**

**"Don't remind me."**

**The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.**

**I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.**

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.**

**Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night. **

**"Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"**

**I didn't answer.**

**"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

**"Just… tired."**

**I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and started getting ready for bed.**

"That won't work with satyrs." Dionysus said. Everyone looked at Dionysus shocked. Everybody had forgotten that he was there.

**I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.**

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was some kind of danger.**

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam, my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.**

**For a moment, I was worried about he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

**"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's… it's for the best."**

**His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

**I mumbled, "Okay, sir."**

**"I mean…" Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."**

**My eyes stung.**

**Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was me I was destined to get kicked out.**

**"Right," I said trembling.**

**"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say… you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be-"**

**"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me."**

**"Percy-"**

**But I was already gone.**

**On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

**The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were _rich_ juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

"Yeah, you're from a family of nobodies all right." Apollo said sarcastically.

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.**

**What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spending my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.**

**"Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."**

**They went back to their conversation like I'd never existed.**

**The only person I dreaded saying goodbye to was Grover, but it turned out I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

"Creeper much?" Apollo and Hermes said at the same time. They looked at each other and laughed. Artemis and Athena looked at each other, nodded, and got off their thrones. Artemis hit Apollo upside the head multiple times while Athena punched Hermes in the arm several times. When they were finally done, the goddesses sat back down and motioned for Demeter to keep reading.

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something to happen. Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.**

**Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha-what do you mean?"**

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.**

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"**

**"Oh… not much. What's the summer solstice deadline?"**

**He winced. "Look, Percy… I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers…"**

**"Grover-"**

**"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and…"**

"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar." Thalia said.

**"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

"I think like Seaweed Brain!" Thalia yelled dramatically. Percy punched her in the arm and she glared at him. She punched him back.

**His ears turned pink.**

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer."**

**The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:**

**Grover Underwood**

**Keeper**

**Half-Blood Hill**

**Long Island, New York**

**(800)-000-0000**

"I hate those cards." All the demigods muttered. Dionysus smiled smugly.

**"What's Half-"**

**"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um… summer address."**

**My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

**"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."**

**He nodded. "Or… or if you need me."**

**"Why would I need you?"**

**It came out harsher than I meant it to.**

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I-I kind of have to protect you."**

**I stared at him.**

**All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended _me_.**

**"Grover," I said. "What exactly are you protecting me from?"**

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

Poseidon got a bad feeling at that moment. He met eyes with Athena, and she nodded. She had confirmed his fears. His son was about to see the Fates.

**After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.**

**We were on a stretch of country road-no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

Annabeth finally realized that Percy was about to meet the Fates too. She was worried about what happen to Percy. She kind of liked him.

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of bloodred cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.**

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.**

**The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

Now Thalia was really worried. Annabeth looked next to her and saw Thalia and Nico were really pale. Nico was usually pale, but he was paler than normal.

She put a hand on Nico's shoulder. They met eyes. They didn't speak, but Nico's eyes were asking, '_What's going to happen to my big brother?'_ Annabeth honestly didn't know. Percy was a really nice guy. She was worried about him too.

**I looked at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

**"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man-"**

**"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

**"Yeah. Weird, huh?" You think those socks would fit me?"**

"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all." Annabeth and Thalia said.

**"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."**

Nobody laughed at the fact that Annabeth and Thalia had just quoted Grover.

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors-gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.**

**"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."**

**"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."**

**"Come on!" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that _snip_ across four lanes of traffic. Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for-Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

"PERSEUS POSEIDON JACKSON!" Thalia shrieked. Percy flinched when she used his real full name.

"YOU SAW THE FATES AND YOU. DIDN'T. TELL. ME?!" Thalia screamed. With every word, she took a step closer to Percy. She looked like she was about to murder him.

"Now, Thalia, let's not get hasty. I never told you guys because it never really came up." He said.

"You mean that Annabeth doesn't know about this either? Dude, she's gonna kill you when she finds out." Nico said laughing.

Thalia lunged at Percy and he scrambled off the bench trying to get out of her reach. She grabbed him and pinned him to the floor. She was sitting on his stomach with her left forearm against his chest and she held her hunting knife in her right hand against his neck.

Hazel, Jason and Nico just watched, because they all knew that if they messed with Thalia when she was beating someone up, they'd get injured too.

"How… could… you… not… tell… me… this!" Thalia shrieked. With every word, she punched Percy in the arm. Finally she calmed down and got up. She sat back down next to Nico.

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the metal compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

**The passengers cheered.**

**"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"**

**Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.**

Thalia looked over at Percy. She put her hand on his arm, and he looked at her. Poseidon met eyes with Thalia, and she could tell that the god was worried about his son.

"I… I'll be okay, Thals. I just need some fresh air." Percy muttered. He got up and walked out of the room. Thalia looked at Nico, got up and followed him. Demeter continued to read.

**Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

**"Grover?"**

**"Yeah?"**

**"What are you not telling me?"**

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see at the fruit stand?"**

**"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like… Mrs. Dodds, are they?"**

**His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

**"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."**

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost-older.**

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

**"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

**"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."**

**"What last time?"**

**"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."**

**"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"**

**"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."**

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

**"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.**

**No answer.**

**"Grover-that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"**

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

"That's the end of the chapter." Demeter said.

"I'm hungry." Nico wailed. Thalia and Percy came in. "You're always hungry Nico, even though you eat all the time." Percy said. Demeter looked at Nico in surprise.

"He's as thin as a stick though." She said.

"Oh, Lady Demeter, you haven't seen him two Big Macs and a large fries from McDonald's." Thalia said.

"I'M HUNGRY!" Nico wailed.

"SHUT UP!" Percy yelled.

"Fine, let's stop for the night. We'll pick up again in the morning." Zeus said.

Nico ran out of the room. The gods and demigods followed him. Demeter waved her hand and set up a buffet table full of food. While everyone else got some food, Percy sat down at a table.

Annabeth noticed Percy and went to sit down next to him.

"Hey, are you okay, Percy?" His face had gained a little color back, but it was still a bit pale.

"Yeah, I'm... I'm fine." He muttered. "Percy, I've only known you a little while, but I can tell that you are not okay. I'm not stupid." She said softly.

"Annabeth, I really am fine. I just… I'm just having a tough time right now." He took out Riptide out of his pocket and started turning the pen/sword over in his hands.

"Okay. I believe you." Annabeth got up and sat down next to Katie and Silena. Thalia and Nico sat down on both sides of Percy.

"Perce, are you sure you're okay?" Nico said. "Yes, I'm okay Nico. I just don't really like this book right now."

Thalia and Nico nodded. They had never seen their cousin act like this before.

Once everyone was done, the gods with kids showed them their rooms.

Hades took Nico down one of the hallways and stopped at a black door. Nico walked in and found a black room with a TV and a bunch of games. "Good night Nico." Hades said. "Good night Dad." Nico said.

Poseidon led Percy down another hall. They stopped at sea green door. "Percy-"

"Yes, Dad, I'm alright. I'll see you in the morning." Percy said, walked in the room, and shut the door.

Zeus took Thalia down a third hallway and led her into a bright electric-blue room with bows on the walls. They stood there awkwardly for a couple minutes. "I'll see you in the morning, Dad." Thalia said. "Good night Thalia." Thalia shut the door and Zeus walked back down the hall.

**The next morning**

"Poseidon, where is your son?" Zeus asked. "Thalia and Nico are here. We are just waiting on your son."

"I have no idea where Percy could be." Poseidon said. Right when he said that, Percy walked in with a small boy walking next to him. Percy and the little boy were laughing and talking about something. He looked exactly Percy. He had the same messy black hair and sea green eyes as Percy. Poseidon was shocked.

"Hey guys. Look who I found." Percy said. "Everybody, meet Percy. Percy, meet everybody. The boy waved to everyone. He tugged on Percy's shirt. He leaned down and Percy pointed to Annabeth and whispered something. Percy smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I think she's pretty too." Annabeth blushed. Thalia walked over.

"So, where did you find him?" She asked.

"Well, I woke up this morning, and he was asleep on the floor next to the bed. I waited until he woke up and I asked him what his name was. He told me that his name was Percy Jackson, and I said, 'No way. I'm Percy Jackson too.' So we started talking, and I came in here with him."

Thalia was looking at the boy. He was looking around the room. "Percy, why are all these people so tall?" Percy asked. "Well, these really tall people are gods." Percy told him. Percy nodded. Both Percy's walked over to one of the couches with Thalia and sat down. Percy sat down on Thalia's lap.

"You know Percy; you were pretty cute when you were 5. What happened?" She asked. Percy glared at her. "Ha ha ha, Thals. You're _hilarious_." He said sarcastically.

"So, who's reading next?" Nico asked, eager to change the subject and get his two cousins to stop arguing.

"I'll read." Annabeth said.

She picked up the book and turned to the right page.

**"Grover Unexpectedly Loses His Pants."** She read.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Line Break~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**rugged. "I don't know, sir."**

"Well, he'd better learn the answer… u


End file.
